Govt to borrow Rs 20,000 cr less this fiscal; RBI cancels debt auction

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Mumbai: The government has decided to cancel its Rs 20,000 crore borrowing scheduled for March 26 on review of the position of cash balance, the Reserve Bank of India said on March 22.

This means the government would be borrowing Rs 20,000 crore less than its target of Rs 12.8 lakh crore announced in the Budget on February 1 for the current fiscal.

As per the revised Issuance Calendar issued on February 1, 2021 for Government of India Dated Securities, the next auction is scheduled to be held on March 26, 2021.

“On review of the position of cash balance, the Government of India has decided to cancel the above-scheduled auction,” the central bank said in a statement.

According to the Revised Estimate, the gross borrowing for the current financial year was raised to Rs 12.8 lakh crore as against the Budget Estimate of Rs 7.8 lakh crore, registering an increase of 64%.

“The gross borrowing from the market for the next year (2021-22) would be around Rs 12 lakh crore. We plan to continue with our path of fiscal consolidation, and intend to reach a fiscal deficit level below 4.5% of GDP by 2025-2026 with a fairly steady decline over the period,” Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said while announcing Budget for 2021-22.

The government raises money from the market to fund its fiscal deficit through dated securities and treasury bills. As a result, net borrowing would come down to Rs 9.24 lakh crore for the next fiscal, while for the current fiscal it is estimated at Rs 10.52 lakh crore during 2020-21.

The Budget has pegged fiscal deficit at 6.8% for the next fiscal, down from 9.5% of the GDP in the current financial year. The fiscal deficit in RE 2020-21 is pegged at 9.5% of GDP.